Sarah Cherry: Proud of decision

I love fireworks as much as anyone, and I have always been so proud of Steamboat’s legendary display. However, this year I was also proud of our early decision to cancel the fireworks. At the time, a few other local Steamboat volunteers and I were helping the American Red Cross at the High Park Fire and had seen how horrible the fire’s effect could be.

I attended the fun concert at Howelsen Hill on July 4 and thought it was a great use of the evening — if maybe even a bit better, as it was 90 minutes of fun that lasted way beyond the time of fireworks. As I was waving my fiber optic light wand to the music, I was thinking about how lucky our community had been so far (knock on wood) in this dry season. This was reinforced even more so during my drive this weekend to Loveland to see family. Coming back Saturday afternoon on Colorado Highway 14, we were able to see the destruction to the hillsides and the amazing work the firefighters were able to do on structure protection. It was such a contrast to see the residents of the little community of Poudre Park all outside filling up sandbags to protect their homes from flooding and mudslides after everything they have already gone through.

It made me appreciate the proactive choices made by our leaders and emergency responders, and although I know our community will be there in support if there is a disaster here, it will be even nicer if we do not have to.